Page 12 - Civil Litigation

believe that the complaint fails to meet the legal standard to claim relief and, therefore, the defendant is
unable to answer the complaint. This can lead to a pleading called a demurrer. A demurrer attempts to
exclude claims without legal merit, regardless of the alleged facts asserted in the complaint. The demur-
rer and answer, in part, narrow the dispute and identify affirmative defenses.

The answer may also include a cross-complaint (or counterclaim), which is a complaint by the defend-
ant against the plaintiff in opposition to the plaintiff's claims. Thereafter, the plaintiff is a cross-
defendant. Similar to the complaint, the cross-defendant must answer and defend against the cross-
complaint in trial.

Discovery Phase

Discovery is a process that results in the exchange of information and knowledge between the plaintiff
and defendant after the pleadings are filed in order to prepare evidence for trial. The following are seven
types of discoveries:

Chart 2: Discovery Methods

The methods subsequently described are used to accomplish discovery:

1. Interrogatories are questions prepared and submitted to an opposing party that require written
answers under oath.

2. Requests for admissions are formal written requests for an opposing party to agree to, or deny,
the accuracy of disputed facts.

3. Stipulations are voluntary agreements between opposing parties about matters relevant to the
dispute. fn 11

4. Requests for production are requests to have an opposing party produce, or make available for
inspection and duplication, certain specifically identified materials believed to be potentially rel-
evant to the dispute. The materials may be hard copy or electronically stored information.

fn 11 For example, a stipulation may take the form of an agreement between the disputing parties on issues of liability or
the production of draft versions of expert reports.

10 © 2020 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants